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Newtown parents on assault weapons ban

Some of the families of the victims of the Newtown mass shooting are not calling for a ban of the type of weapon Adam Lanza used to murder their loved ones

2013Apr 05

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Some of the families of the victims of the Newtown mass shooting are not calling for a ban of the type of weapon Adam Lanza used to murder their loved ones. In a 60 Minutes interview to be broadcast the night before they go to Washington to speak out for gun control, the families tell Scott Pelley they realize banning assault-type weapons is a complicated and politicized issue. The interview with the families will be broadcast on 60 Minutes, Sunday, April 7 at 7:00 p.m. ET/PT.

Nelba Marquez-Greene lost her 6-year-old daughter Ana in the rampage that took the lives of 20 young children and six adults in the Sandy Hook Elementary School last Dec. 14. Early on, right after the massacre, she had a different feeling about guns. "At first...my heart was, 'Let's have a big bonfire and burn everything. Let's burn all these damn guns," remembers Marquez-Greene. "I have since learned that it's a more complex issue than just saying, 'Let's ban assault weapons," she tells Pelley. "We're looking for real change and common sense solutions. Not things that just sound good."

Says her husband, Jimmy Greene, "When we talk ban and confiscate... it becomes a political argument. It's so much bigger than a political debate. It's so much bigger than Democrats versus Republicans, conservative versus liberals," he says. "I believe, in my humble opinion, this all transcends that."

The people Pelley speaks to in this story have said the big issues in gun control for them now are stiffening the background checks required to keep weapons away from the mentally ill and the limitation of magazine sizes to reduce the number of bullets that can be fired before reloading.